The year is 632 A.D., and Muslim hordes have set their sights on the Mideast and North Africa -- the old Christian world. And the Caliphate, as the Islamic realm is called, will not be denied. Syria and Iraq fall in 636. Palestine is next in 638. And Byzantine Egypt and North Africa, not even Arab lands, are conquered by 642 and 709, respectively. Then, just two years later, the Muslims cross the Strait of Gibraltar and enter Iberia (now Spain and Portugal). The invasion of Europe has begun.

And the new continent seems no impediment to Islam. After vanquishing much of Visigothic Iberia by 718, the Muslims cross the Pyrenees Mountains into Gaul (now France) and move northward. Now it is 732, and they are approaching Tours, a mere 126 miles from Paris. The Western world -- what's left of Christendom -- could very well be on its way to extinction.

Europe is currently easy prey, comprising disunited, often belligerent kingdoms and duchies recently decimated by plague. In contrast, the Islamic world is a burgeoning civilization; so much so, in fact, that it views the Europeans as barbarians. The Muslims also command enormous battle-hardened military forces and have enjoyed almost unparalleled breadth and rapidity of conquest, while Europe no longer has standing armies. It largely relies on peasants to do its fighting, men available only when crops aren't beckoning. Yet the Christian Europeans do have one great asset: Charles of Herstal, grandfather of Charlemagne.

El Cid, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, captured Valencia in 1094. Although he fought for the Mohammedans while in exile, he returned to fight the Mohammedans at Valencia. I saw his tomb in the Burgos Cathedral. El Cid is the national hero of Spain.

6
posted on 03/08/2013 5:00:05 AM PST
by NTHockey
(Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners)

The contributions of the Byzantines should not be overlooked. Even though Islamic expansion was possible through Byzantium’s exhaustion from incessant wars with the Persians, they retained enough strength to stop the Arabs in Asia Minor. Then, for 400+ years they remained a strong bulwark against the Moslem Arabs, Saracens, Persians and Turks, all while having to watch their backs in the Balkans.

8
posted on 03/08/2013 5:10:39 AM PST
by henkster
(I have one more cow than my neighbor. I am a kulak.)

Westerners seem to overlook the significance of the sieges of Constantinople in 683 and 717, which were much more significant victories by Christians over Muslims than was the Battle of Tours. Also overlooked is the Battle of Kashgar in 736, in which the Chinese defeated Arab invaders and halted the eastward advance of Islam.

It is relevant to point out that the limits of Muslim expansion reached at Tours, Vienna and Malta were to a considerable extent the consequence not so much of defeat in these battles as of shee distance.

Give the tech of the time, France was an enormous distance from the center of Muslim power in Syria/Iraq. With every mile the Muslims advanced their logistics became more difficult while that of their enemies, driven back onto their own centers of power, became easier.

Same thing was the most important single reason for the defeats of Charles XII, Napoleon and Hitler when they invaded Russia.

Amateurs talk battles, professionals study logistics.

A not inconsiderable additional factor at Tours was the coalition and freebooting nature of the Muslim invasion. When their accumulated booty, the reason they’d invaded in the first place, was threatened, soldiers began sneaking off to secure their loot, and the Muslim army fell apart.

Oh, stop. While that may be true in part, the fact is that the Muslims greatly outnumbered the Christians at Tours and had cavalry where the Christians did not. The Muslims also went on to conquer most all of Iberia, and there’s no reason to think they could have done the same with Gaul.

Morocco is also a long way from Syria and Iraq, but the Muslims had no trouble holding it and turning it into a Muslim land.

Martel was a great military leader who employed brilliant tactics at Tours. This should not be downplayed.

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